Deane Mills stated:

Unless Professors Forsythe and Finkelman and others like them were close to
someone who could give them the benefit of first hand experience, all they
know is what they have read or been taught by someone else who probably
wasn't there.
______________

"Others like them" might include me, so I'll take the bait.

1.  I would be pilloried by other scholars, and justifiable so, if my
interpretation of an entire historical era was based on the memories of four
people to whom I was related, even if the events they described happened in
the recent past.

2.  Historians "know" many more than four people "who were there" through
archival research in the diaries, letters, and other documents left by the
people of the period under study.  I spent considerable time reading the
private thoughts and public statements of Philip Whitlock, Robert Granniss,
Lucy Jarvis Scott, Virginia Hawes Terhune, Mann Valentine, and many other
Richmonders of all social stations during the research for my last book.  I
was also privy to the meetings of many organizations, including the Richmond
Light Infantry Blues, the Central Southern Rights Association, and the First
African Baptist Church of Richmond.  I tried to fairly represent a wide
range of people and opinions in my book, although I leave it to others to
decide whether I have done so.  And this brings me to another one of your
statements:

"..... then living through the hell of Reconstruction, being at the mercy of
an occupying enemy army, left an INDELIBLE impression on those who
experienced it."

3.  One man or woman's "hell" might be another's heaven, although it seems
to me that life is usually a little of both.  For instance, African
Americans in Richmond celebrated the beginning of "hell" with an
Emancipation Day celebration and parade on 3 April 1866.  Differing
perspectives on many historical events are available in newspapers, public
records, and other sources, or, for that matter, in oral histories conducted
in other communities.

4.  I have no problem with oral history as source, and I have interviewed
many people in my career.  In fact, one of the great joys of public history
is the chance to meet descendants of people you have come to know through
historical sources.  No one source, however, is sufficient for historical
understanding, and all sources should be crosschecked against as many
contemporary accounts as possible.

Gregg Kimball

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